As expected, Oculus Rift pre-orders kicked off earlier today on Oculus.com. As a result, we now know exactly how much the virtual reality headset will cost and when it will ship.
Despite some hopes that it might sell for around US$350 (about CA$500), it will sell for US$599 (about CA$850). Along with the headset, the kit will include a sensor, the Oculus Remote, cables and an Xbox One Controller. Two games, EVE: Valkyrie and Lucky’s Tale are also included.
Unlike many pre-orders, Oculus will not charge you until it actually ships. As Palmer Luckey, the OculusVR Inc. founder, tweeted, “no deposit lock-in, no bonus pressure.”
Rift preorders are different from most of the games industry. You don't get charged until we ship – no deposit lock-in, no bonus pressure.
— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) January 6, 2016
A PC with the following hardware requirement is recommended for the “full Rift experience:”
- graphics card: NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD R9 290 equivalent or greater
- processor: Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
- memory: 8GB+ RAM
- output: Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output
- input: 3x USB 3.0 ports plus 1x USB 2.0 port
- operating system: Windows 7 SP1 64 bit or newer
Shipments of the Oculus Rift pre-orders are set to begin on March 28th. They are available in 20 countries including Canada and the U.S. The shipment date will push out depending on the number of pre-orders received. As we write this, it has already slipped into May.
More games and VR content as well as the Oculus Touch controllers are expected to launch later this year.
Source : Oculus VR